Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Other parts of the cost structure of conventional electricity systems will also drive up
the price of steam-based electricity over the coming decade, in particular transmission
systems, which will require hundreds of billions of dollars of investment by the utilities
that manage them—and guess who this cost is going to get passed on to. Yes, you, the
customer.
Yet another reason for the rising price of fossil-fuel electricity is the byproducts
of burning fossil fuels, otherwise known as pollution. Scrubbing pollution out of
smokestacks, controlling mercury-contaminated ash, and attempting to capture and store
carbon dioxide—all are adding to the liability side of the ledger for fossil-fuel power
plants.
In my crystal ball, I see that over the next decade—as communities continue to be
freaked out by weird weather; as mounting insurance costs drive Big Business to pay
higher premiums; and as policymakers try to keep up with disasters, infrastructure im-
pacts,andmyriadotherelementsofclimatechangeadaption—ourcountrywillstartpro-
gressively imposing charges on Dirty Energy for carbon pollution, just as we've held
the tobacco industry responsible for the impact of its products on the health of our com-
munities. We've imposed taxes and regulations on Big Tobacco companies to reduce the
impactsofthegaseousbyproductofburningtobaccoandusedtheproceedingstopayfor
public health education, prevention, and treatment of smoking-related illness. This is the
model of the carbon tax that Australia is imposing: take $20 per ton of carbon dioxide
produced and create a fund to support clean energy over time. Makes sense to me. How
about you?
AlthoughoursurgeongeneralisnotmakingthecaseforcleanenergyinCongress,it's
likely that, as slow as they are, our leaders will put a price on carbon because a growing
number of us know that we have an option: solar energy. Historians have noted that the
antislavery movement grew much of its support around the time that steam-engine tech-
nology was becoming known around the world for its ability to displace cheap human
labor. People of the time needed a working alternative before they could make the shift
awayfromtheterriblecenturies-oldtraditionofhumanbondage.Nowwehaveanaltern-
ative to the dirty energy that's unjustly polluting our present and threatening our future,
and that alternative is clean, renewable solar power.
Until now we've been beholden to the carbon pollution-producing technology to
which we've become accustomed. But now that we have the reality of solar-panel and
other clean-energy technologies in our midst, we must demand that our government and
the corporations abandon the diabolic machinery of Dirty Energy. We as rooftop revolu-
tionaries must clear our minds of the fog (or, more appropriately, FUD) that CONG has
put into our heads and, like the slavery abolitionists, tell truth to power.
